SEX 



AVOIDED SUBJECTS DISCUSSED 
IN PLAIN ENGLISH 

By 

HENRY STANTON 



SOCIAL MENTOR PUBLICATIONS 

200 FIFTH AVENUE 

NEW YORK 



Price $2.00 



SEX 



AVOIDED SUBJECTS DISCUSSED 
IN PLAIN ENGLISH 



By 
HENRY STANTON 




SOCIAL MENTOR PUBLICATIONS 
200 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY 



3 s 

5«& 



Copyright, 1922 
Social Mentor Publications 

MANUFACTURED IN U. S s A a 



DEC 27 '22 

C1A6960.61 



I 5 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

I. Sex 5 

II. The Transition from Cell to Human Being 12 

III. Sex in Male Childhood 20 

IV. Sex in Female Childhood 26 

V. Sex in the Adolescent Male ..... 30 

VI. Sex in the Adolescent Female .... 35 
VII, Sex in the Marriage Relation (The Hus- 
band) 43 

VIII. Sex in the Marriage Relation (The Wife) 45 

IX. Sex Diseases S3 

X. Love and Sex 57 



CHAPTER I 

SEX 

THE happiness of all human beings, men and 
women, depends largely on their rational solu- 
tion of the sexual problem. Sex and the part it 
plays in human life cannot be ignored. In the case 
of animals sex plays a simpler and less complex 
role. It is a purely natural and instinctive function 
whose underlying purpose is the perpetuation of 
the species. It is not complicated by the many inci- 
dental phenomena which result, in man's case, from 
psychologic, economic, moral and religious causes. 
Climate, social conditions, individual modes of life 
and work, alcohol, wealth and poverty, and other 
factors affect sexual activity in human being. 

Sexual love, which is practically unknown to the 
animals, is a special development of the sex urge 
in the human soul. The deeper purpose of the sex 
function in human beings, likewise, is procreation, 
the reproduction of species. 

The average man, woman and child should know 
the essential sex facts in order to be able to deal 
with the sex problems of life. Of late years there 
has been a greater diffusion of such knowledge. To 
a large extent, however, children and adolescents 
are still taught to look on all that pertains to sex 
as something shameful and immodest, something 
not to be discussed. Sex is an "Avoided Subject." 

5 



SEX 

This is fundamentally wrong. Sex affects the 
very root of all human life. Its activities are not 
obscene, but Nature's own means to certain legiti- 
mate ends. The sex functions, when properly con- 
trolled and led into the proper channels, are a most 
essential and legitimate form of physical self- 
expression. The veil of secrecy with which they 
are so often shrouded tends to create an altogether 
false impression regarding them. This discussion 
of these "Avoided Subjects," in "Plain English/' is 
intended to give the salient facts regarding sex in a 
direct, straightforward manner, bearing in mind the 
true purpose of normal sex activities. 

The more we know of the facts of sex, the right 
and normal part sex activities play in life, and all 
that tends to abuse and degrade them, the better 
able we will be to make sex a factor for happiness 
in our own lives and that of our descendants. Man- 
kind, for its own general good, must desire that 
reproduction — the real purpose of every sexual 
function — occur in such a way as to perpetuate its 
own best physical and mental qualities. 

THE LAW OF PHYSICAL LIFE 

It is a universal rule of physical life that every 
individual being undergoes a development which we 
know as its individual life and which, so far as its 
physical substance is concerned, ends with death. 
Death is the destruction of the greater part of this 
individual organism which, when death ensues, 
once more becomes lifeless matter. Only small 
portions of this matter, the germ cells, continue 

6 



SEX 

to live under certain conditions which nature has 
fixed. 

The germ cell — as has been established by the 
microscope — is the tiny cell which in the lowest 
living organisms as well as in man himself, forms 
the unit of physical development. Yet even this 
tiny cell is already a highly organized and perfected 
thing. It is composed of the most widely differing 
elements which, taken together, form the so-called 
protoplasm or cellular substance. And for all life 
established in nature the cell remains the constant 
and unchanging form element. It comprises the 
cell-protoplasm and a nucleus imbedded in it whose 
substance is known as the nucleoplasm. The nu- 
cleus is the more important of the tw r o and, so to 
say, governs the life of the cell-protoplasm. 

The lower one-celled organisms in nature increase 
by division, just as do the individual cells of a more 
highly organized, many-celled order of living beings. 
And in all cases, though death or destruction of the 
cells is synonymous with the death or destruction 
of the living organism, the latter in most cases 
already has recreated itself by reproduction. 

We will not go into the very complicated details 
of the actual process of the growth and division of 
the protoplasmic cells. It is enough to say that in 
the case of living creatures provided with more 
complicated organisms, such as the higher plants, 
animals and man, the little cell units divide and 
grow as they do in the case of the lower organisms. 
The fact is one which shows the intimate inner 
relationship of all living beings, 

7 



SEX 



THE LADDER OF ORGANIC ASCENT 

As we mount the ascending ladder of plant and 
animal life the unit-cell of the lower organisms is 
replaced by a great number of individual cells, 
which have grown together to form a completed 
whole. In this complete whole the cells, in accord- 
ance with the specific purpose for which they are 
intended, all have a different form and a different 
chemical composition. Thus it is that in the case 
of the plants leaves, flowers, buds, bark, branches 
and stems are formed, and in that of animals skin, 
intestines, glands, blood, muscles, nerves, brain and 
the organs of sense. In spite of the complicated 
nature of numerous organisms we find that many of 
them still possess the power of reproducing them- 
selves by division or a process of "budding/' In the 
case of certain plants and animals, cell-groups grow 
together into a so-called "bud," which later de- 
taches itself from the parent body and forms a new 
individual living organism, as in the case of the 
polyps or the tubers in plant life. 

A tree, for instance, may be grown from a graft 
which has been cut off and planted in the ground. 
And ants and bees which have not been fecundated 
are quite capable of laying eggs out of which de- 
velop perfect, well-formed descendants. This last 
process is called parthenogenesis. It is a process, 
however, which if carried on through several gener- 
ations, ends in deterioration and degeneracy. In the 
case of the higher animals, vertebrates and man, 
such reproduction is an impossibility. 

8 



SEX 

These higher types of animal life have been pro- 
vided by nature with special organs of reproduc- 
tion and reproductive glands whose secretions, 
when they are projected from the body under cer- 
tain conditions, reproduce themselves, and increase 
and develop in such wise that the living organism 
from which they proceed is reproduced in practi- 
cally its identical form. Thus it perpetuates the 
original type. Philosophically it may be said that 
these cells directly continue the life of the parents, 
so that death in reality only destroys a part of the 
individual. Every individual lives again in his 
offspring. 

THE TRUE MISSION OF SEX 

This rebirth of the individual in his descendants 
represents the true mission of sex where the human 
being is concerned. And reproduction, the per- 
petuation of the species, underlies all rightful and 
normal sex functions and activities. The actual 
physical process of reproduction, the details which 
initiate reproduction in the case of the human being, 
it seems unnecessary here to describe. In the animal 
world, into which the moral equation does not 
really enter, the facts of conjugation represent a 
simple and natural working-out of functional bodily 
laws, usually with a seasonal determination. But 
where man is concerned these facts are so largely 
made to serve the purposes of pruriency, so ex- 
ploited to inflame the imagination in an undesirable 
and directly harmful way that they can be ap- 
proached only with the utmost caution. 

The intimate fact knowledge necessary in this 

9 



SEX 

connection is of a peculiarly personal and sacred 
nature, and represents information which is better 
communicated by the spoken than by the printed 
word. The wise father and mother are those natu- 
rally indicated to convey this information to their 
sons and daughters by word of mouth. By analogy, 
by fuller development and description of the repro- 
ductive processes of plant and animal life on which 
we have touched, the matter of human procreation 
may be approached. Parents should stress the point, 
when trying to present this subject to the youthful 
mind, that man's special functions are only a detail 
— albeit a most important one — in nature's vast 
plan for the propagation of life on earth. This will 
have the advantage of correcting a trend on the 
part of the imaginative boy or girl to lay too much 
stress on the part humanity plays in this great gen- 
eral reproductive scheme. It will lay weight on the 
fact that the functional workings of reproduction 
are not, primarily, a source of pleasure, but that — 
when safeguarded by the institution of matrimony, 
on which civilized social life is based— they stand 
for the observance of solemn duties and obligations, 
duties to church and state, and obligations to pos- 
terity* Hence, parents, in talking to their children 
about these matters should do so in a sober and in- 
structive fashion. The attention of a mother, per- 
haps, need not be called to this. But fathers may 
be inclined, in many cases, to inform their sons 
without insisting that the information they give 
them is, in the final analysis, intended to be applied 
to lofty constructive purposes. They may, in their 

10 



SEX 

desire to speak practically, forget the moral values 
which should underlie this intimate information. 
Never should the spirit of levity intrude itself in 
these intimate personal sex colloquies. Restraint 
and decency should always mark them. 

In making clear to the mind of youth the fact 
data which initiates and governs reproduction in 
animal and in human life, the ideal to be cultivated 
is continence, the refraining from all experimenta- 
tion undertaken in a spirit of curiosity, until such 
time as a well-placed affection, sanctioned by the 
divine blessing, will justify a sane and normal ex- 
ploitation of physical needs and urges in the matri- 
monial state, To this end hard bodily and mental- 
work should be encouraged in the youth of both 
sexes. "Satan finds work for idle hands to do," has 
special application in this connection, and a chaste 
and continent youth is usually the forerunner of a 
happy and contented marriage. And incidentally, 
a happy marriage is the best guarantee that repro- 
duction, the carrying on of the species, will be 
morally and physically a success. Here, too, the 
fact should be strongly stressed that prostitution 
cannot be justified on any moral grounds. It repre- 
sents a deliberate ignoring of the rightful function 
of sex, and the perversion of the sane and natural 
laws of reproduction, It is in marriage, in the 
sane and normal activities of that unit of our whole 
social system— -the family — that reproduction de- 
velops nature's basic principle of perpetuation in 
the highest and worthiest manner, in obedience to 
laws humane and divine. 

ii 



CHAPTER II 

THE TRANSITION FROM CELL TO 
HUMAN BEING 

IN the functional processes alluded to in the pre- 
ceding chapter, the male germ-cell and the female 
germ-cell unite in a practically equal division of 
substance. We say "practically" because the ma- 
ternal and the paternal influences are not equally 
divided in the offspring. One or the other usually 
predominates. But, as a general rule, it may be 
said that in the development of the embryonal life 
the process of cell division proceeds in such a way 
that every germ of the child's future organism rep- 
resents approximately one-half maternal and one- 
half paternal substance and energy. 

In this process lies the true secret of heredity. 
The inherited energies retain their their full measure 
of power, and all their original quality in the 
growing and dividing chromosomes (the chromo- 
some is one of the segments into which the 
chromoplasmic filaments of a cell-nucleus break 
up just before indirect division). On the other 
hand, the egg-substance of the female germ-cell, 
which is assimilated by the chromosomes, and which 
is turned into their substance by the process of 
organic chemistry, loses its specific plastic vital 
energy completely. It is in the same way that food 

12 



FROM CELL TO HUMAN BEING 

eaten by the adult has absolutely no effect on his 
qualitative organic structure. We may eat ever 
so many beef-steaks without acquiring any of the 
characteristics of an ox. And the germ-cell may de- 
vour any amount of egg-protoplasma without los- 
ing its original paternal energy. As a rule a child 
inherits as many qualities from its mother as from 
its father. 

DETERMINATION OF SEX 

Sex is determined after conception has taken 
place. At an early stage of the embryo certain 
cells are set apart. These, later, form the sex 
glands. Modern research claims to have discovered 
the secret of absolutely determining sex in the 
human embryo, but even if these claims are valid 
they have not as yet met with any general applica- 
tion. 

EARLY DEVELOPMENT 

Some twelve days after conception, the female 
ovule or egg, which has been impregnated by the 
male spermatazoon, escapes from the ovary where 
it was impregnated, and entering a tube (Fallopian) 
gradually descends by means of it into the cavity 
of the womb or uterus. Here the little germ begins 
to mature in order to develop into an exact counter- 
part of its parents. In the human being the womb 
has only a single cavity, and usually develops but 
a single embryo. 

TWINS 

Sometimes two ovules are matured at the same 
time. If fecundated, two embryos instead of one 
will develop, producing twins. Triplets and quad- 

13 



SEX 

ruplets, the results of the maturing of three or four 
ovules at the same time, occur more rarely. As 
many as five children have been born alive at a 
single birth, but have seldom lived for more than 
a few minutes. 

GESTATION 

The development of the ovule in the womb is 
known as gestation or pregnancy. The process is one 
of continued cell division and growth, and while it 
goes on the ovule sticks to the inner wall of the 
womb. There it is soon enveloped by a mucous 
membrane, which grows around it and incloses it. 

THE EMBRYO 

The Primitive Trace, a delicate straight line ap- 
pearing on the surface of the growing layer of cells 
is the base of the embryonic spinal column. Around 
this the whole embryo develops in an intricate 
process of cell division and duplication. One end 
of the Primitive Trace becomes the head, the other 
the tail, for every human being has a tail at this 
stage of his existence. The neck is marked by a 
slight depression; the body by a swollen center. 
Soon little buds or "pads" appear in the proper 
positions. These represent arms and legs, whose 
ends, finally, split up into fingers and toes. The 
embryonic human being has been steadily increas- 
ing in size, meanwhile. By the fifth week the heart 
and lungs are present in a rudimentary form, and 
ears and face are distinctly outlined. During the 
seventh week the kidneys are formed, and a little 
later the genital organs. At two months, though 

H 



FROM CELL TO HUMAN BEING 

sex is not determined as yet, eyes and nose are 
visible, the mouth is gaping, and the skin can be 
distinguished. At ten weeks the sexual organs 
form more definitely, and in the third month sex 
can be definitely determined, 

THE FOETUS 

At the end of its fourth month the embryo— 
now four or five inches long and weighing about an 
ounce — is promoted. It receives the name of foetus. 
Hairs appear on the scalp, the eyes are provided 
with lids, the tongue appears far back in the mouth. 
The movements of the foetus are plainly felt by 
the mother. If born at this time it lives but a few 
minutes. It continues to gain rapidly in weight. By 
the sixth month the nails are solid, the liver large 
and red, and there is fluid in the gall bladder. The 
seventh month finds the foetus from twelve and a 
half to fourteen inches long, and weighing about 
fifty-five ounces. It is now well proportioned, the 
bones of the cranium, formerly flat, are arched. All 
its parts are well defined, and it can live if born. 
By the end of the eighth month the foetus has 
thickened out. Its skin is red and covered by a deli- 
cate down; the lower jaw has grown to the same 
length as the upper one. The convolutions of the 
brain structure also appear during this month. 

PLACENTA AND UMBILICAL CORD 

During gestation the unborn infant has been sup- 
plied with air and nourishment by the mother. An 
organ called the Placenta, a spongy growth of 

15 



SEX 

blood vessels, develops on the inner point of the 
womb. To this organ the growing foetus is moored 
by a species of cable, the Umbilical Cord. This 
cord, also made up mainly of blood vessels, carries 
the blood of the foetus to and from the Placenta, 
absorbing it through the thin walls which separate it 
from the mother's blood. Only through her blood 
can the mother influence the child, since the Um- 
bilical Cord contains no nerves. The Umbilical 
Cord, attached to the body of the child at the navel, 
is cut at birth, and with the Placenta is expelled 
from the womb soon after the child has been born. 
Together with the Placenta it forms a shapeless 
mass, familiarly known as the "afterbirth," and 
when it is retained instead of being expelled is apt 
to cause serious trouble. 

CHILDBIRTH OR PARTURITION 

At nine month's time the foetus is violently thrust 
from that laboratory of nature in which it has 
formed. It is born, and comes into the world as a 
child. Considering the ordinary size of the gen- 
erative passages, the expelling of the foetus from 
the womb would seem impossible. But Nature, dur- 
ing those months in which she enlarged the womb 
to hold its gradually increasing contents, has also in- 
creased the generative passages in size. She has 
made them soft and distensible, so that an apparent 
physical impossibility could take place, though it is 
often accompanied by intense suffering. Modern 
medical science has made childbirth easier, but the 
act of childbirth is usually accompanied by more 

16 



FROM CELL TO HUMAN BEING 

or less suffering. Excessive pain, however, is often 
the result of causes which proper treatment can re- 
move before and at the time of confinement. 

TWILIGHT SLEEP 

The so-called "Twilight Sleep," a modern de- 
velopment, by w r hich the pangs of childbirth are 
obviated by the administration of drugs or by hyp- 
notic suggestion, has its opponents and defenders. 
The advantage of a painless childbirth, upon which 
the mother can look back as on a dream, is evident. 
The "Twilight Sleep" process has been used with 
the happiest results both for parent and child. 
Opponents of this system declare that the use of 
powerful drugs may injure the child. A method 
commended is the administration of a mixture of 
laughing gas and oxygen, which relieves the mother 
and does not affect the child. 

THE NEW-BORN INFANT 

The average weight of the new-born child is 
about seven and a half pounds. It is insensitive 
to pain for the first few days, and seems deaf (since 
its middle ears are filled with a thick mucus) for 
the first two weeks. During the first few days, too, 
it does not seem able to see. The first month of 
its existence is purely automatic. Evidences of 
dawning intelligence appear in the second month 
and at four months it will recognize mother or 
nurse. Muscularly it is poorly developed. Not 
until two months old is it able to hold up its head, 
and not until three months does voluntary muscular 

17 



SEX 

movement put in an appearance. The newborn's 
first self-conscious act is to draw breath. Deprived 
of its usual means of supply it must breathe or 
suffocate. Its next is to suck milk, lest it starve. 

HEREDITY 

We often find children who offer a striking re- 
semblance to a paternal grandfather, a maternal 
aunt or a maternal great-grandmother. This is 
known as avatism. There are many curious varia- 
tions with regard to the inheritance of ancestral 
traits. Some children show a remarkable resem- 
blance to their fathers in childhood, others to their 
mothers. And many qualities of certain individual 
ancestors appear quite suddenly late in life. Every- 
thing may be inherited, from the most delicate 
shadings of the disposition, the intelligence and the 
will pow r er, to the least details of hair, nails and 
bone structure, etc. And the combination of the 
qualities of one's ancestors in heredity is so mani- 
fold and so unequal that it is extremely difficult to 
arrive at fixed conclusions regarding it. Hereditary 
traits and tendencies are developed out of the 
energies of the original conjugated germ-cells 
throughout life, up to the very day of death. Even 
aged men often show peculiarities in the evening 
of their life which may be clearly recognized as 
inherited, and duplicating others shown by their 
forbears at the same period of life. 

As has already been mentioned every individual 
inherits, generally speaking, as much from his pa- 
ternal as from his maternal progenitors. This in 

18 



FROM CELL TO HUMAN BEING 

spite of the fact that the tiny paternal germ-cell is 
the only medium of transmission of the paternal 
qualities, while the mother furnishes the much 
larger egg-cell, and feeds him throughout the em- 
bryonic period. 

THE ENGRAM 

An interesting theory maintains that the ex- 
ternal inpressions made upon an organism which 
reacts to them and receives them, might be called 
engrams or "inscriptions." Thus the impression of 
some object we have seen or touched (let us say 
we have seen a lion) may remain engraved on our 
mind as an impression. Hence every memory pic- 
ture is one of engrams, whether the impression is 
a conscious one or an unconscious one. According 
to this same theory the reawakening of an older 
impression is an ecphory. Some new stimulation 
may thus ecphorate an old engram. Now the entire 
embryonal development of the human child is in 
reality no more than a continuous process of ecpho- 
ration of old engrams, one after another. And the 
entire complex of our living human organism is 
made up entirely of these energy-complexes engraved 
on our consciousness or subconsciousness. The sum 
total of all these engrams, in a living human being, 
according to the theory advanced, is given the name 
of mnema. That which the child receives in the 
way of energies contained in the germ-cells from 
its ancestors is his hereditary mnema. And that 
which he acquires in the course of his own individ- 
ual life is his acquired or individual mnema. 

19 



CHAPTER III 

SEX IN MALE CHILDHOOD 

(FROM 14 TO l6) 

DURING the first years of child life all those 
laws of practical hygiene which make for good 
health should be carefully observed. Every organ 
of the body should be carefully protected, even at 
this early age. The genital organs, especially, 
should not be rubbed or handled under any pretext, 
beyond what is absolutely necessary for cleanli- 
ness. The organs of generation, which we are apt 
to treat as nonexistent in children, just because they 
are children, claim just as much watchful care as 
any others. 

SEX PRECAUTIONS IN INFANCY 

Even in infancy, the diaper should fit easily about 
the organs which it covers, so as not to give rise 
to undue friction or heating of the parts. And for 
the same reason it should always be changed im- 
mediately after urination or a movement of the 
bowels. No material which prevents the escape of 
perspiration, urine or fecal matter should be em- 
ployed for a diaper. The use of a chair-commode 
as early as the end of the first year is highly to be 
commended, as being more comfortable for the 
sex organs and healthier for the child. It favors, 

20 



SEX IN MALE CHILDHOOD 

in particular, a more perfect development of limbs 
and hip joints. 

EARLY SEX IMPRESSIONS 

Sex impressions and reactions are apt to develop 
at an early age, especially in the case of boys. If 
the child's physical health is normal, however, they 
should not affect his mind or body. The growing 
boy should be encouraged to take his sex questions 
and sex problems to his parents (in his case pref- 
erably the father) for explanation. Thus they may 
be made clear to him naturally and logically. He 
should not be told what he soon discovers is not 
true: that babies are "dug up with a silver spade," 
or make their appearances in the family thanks to 
the kind offices of storks or angels. Instead, by 
analogy with the reproductive processes of all 
nature, the true facts of sex may be explained to 
him in a soothing and normal way. 

EVIL COMMUNICATIONS 

Too often, the growing boy receives his first les- 
sons regarding sex from ignorant and vicious as- 
sociates. Curiosity is one of the greatest natural 
factors in the child's proper development, if rightly 
directed. When wrongly led, however, it may have 
the worst consequences. Even before puberty oc- 
curs, a boy's attention may be quite naturally drawn 
to his own sex organs. 

NATURAL CAUSES OF INFANT SEXUAL PRECOCITY 

Sexual precocity in boys may be natural or it may 
be artificially called forth. Among natural causes 

21 



SEX 

which develop sex precocity is promiscuous playing 
with other boys and girls for hours without super- 
vision. It may also be produced by playful repose 
on the stomach, sliding down banisters, going too 
long without urinating, by constipation or straining 
at stool, irritant cutaneous affections, and rectal 
worms. Sliding down banisters, for instance, pro- 
duces a titillation. The act may be repeated until 
inveterate masturbation results, even at an early age- 
Needless laving, handling and rubbing of the private 
parts is another natural incitement to sexual 
precocity. 

FRIAPISM 

Priapism is a disease which boys often develop. 
It may be either a result or a cause of sexual pre- 
cocity, and may come from undue handling of the 
genital parts or from a morbid state of health. It 
takes the form of paroxysms, more or less fre- 
quent, and of violent and often painful erection, 
calling for a physician's attention. If the result 
of a functional disorder, and not arrested, it is in 
danger of giving rise to masturbation. This morbid 
condition sometimes seriously impairs the health. 

MASTURBATION 

Masturbation? the habit of self-abuse, often 
formed before puberty, is an artificial development 
of sexual precocity. Most boys, from the age of 
nine to fourteen, interest themselves in sex ques- 
tions and matters, but these are usually presented to 
them in a lewd and improper manner, by improperly 
informed companions. Dwelling upon these thoughts 

22 



SEX IN MALE CHILDHOOD 

the boy is led to play with his sex organs in secret 
and masturbation results. A secret vice of the most 
dangerous kind, masturbation or self -pollution is 
often taught by older boys and takes place, to quote 
an authority "in many of our colleges, boarding, 
public and private schools," and is also indulged 
in by companions beneath the home roof. If it 
becomes habitual, generally impaired health, and 
often epilepsy, and total moral and physical degra- 
dation results. Stains on the nightshirt or sheet 
occurring before puberty are absolute evidence of 
the vice in boys. 

WHAT FATHERS SHOULD DO FOR THEIR BOYS 

Make sex facts clear to your boy as interesting, 
matter-of-fact developments of general natural 
laws. Ungratified or improperly gratified curiosity 
is what leads to a young boy's overemphasizing the 
facts of sex as they apply to him. Make him your 
confidant. Teach him to think cleanly and to act 
cleanly, neither to ignore nor to exalt the sexual. 
Especially, when he himself is directly disturbed 
sexually, either in a mental or physical way, let 
him feel that he can apply to you naturally for 
relief and explanation. If this be done, your boy's 
sex development before puberty will be natural and 
normal, and when the more serious and difficult 
problems of adolescence present themselves, he 
will be prepared to handle them on the basis of 
right thinking and right living. Natural and healthy 
sport in the open air, and the avoidance of foul 
language and indecency should be stressed. The 

23 



SEX 

use of alcohol, coffee and tea by children tends to 
weaken their sexual organs. Every boy should 
know that chastity means continence. He should 
know that lascivious thoughts lead to lascivious 
actions, and that these are a drain on his system 
which may spoil his life in later years. 

In the education of his children the average man 
is only too apt to repeat the same mistake of un- 
consciously crediting the child with the possession 
of his own feelings and his own outlook, that is the 
feelings and outlook of the adult. In general, 
things which may make an impression in a sex 
way on the adult are a matter of indifference to 
the sexually unripe boy. Hence it is quite possible 
for a father to discuss sex matters with his young 
son and inform him constructively, without in any 
undue way rousing his sex curiosity or awakening 
desire. Such talks, of course, should be in ac- 
cordance with the principles already laid down in 
the section on "Reproduction." 

If a boy is accustomed and taught to regard sex 
conditions and matters in a proper and innocent 
manner, as something perfectly natural, improper 
curiosity and eroticism are far less likely to be 
aroused than when this is not the case. For the 
whole subject will have lost the dangerous attrac- 
tion of novelty. On the other hand, we find boys 
who have been brought up with great prudery and 
in complete ignorance of sex matters (save that 
which may come to them from impure sources) 
greatly excited and ashamed by the first appearance 
of the indications of puberty. Secrecy is the 

24 



SEX IN MALE CHILDHOOD 

enemy of a clean, normal conception on the part 
of the child as to the right place sex and the sex 
function play in life and in the world. It stands 
to reason, of course, that every least detail of the 
sex question cannot be intelligently made clear to a 
little child. But his questions should all be answered, 
honestly, and with due regard for his age and his 
capacity to understand what is explained to him. 

One very great advantage of an early paternal 
explanation of sex matters to the boy is its beneficial 
effect on the mind and the nerves. Many boys brood 
or grow melancholy when confronted with sex rid- 
dles and problems for which they are unable to find 
a solution; and as the result of totally erroneous 
ideas they may have formed with regard to sex 
matters. At the same time too much attention should 
not be paid the discussion of sex questions between 
father and son. A father should, so far as possible, 
endeavor to develop other interests and preoccupa- 
tions in his boy, and turn his mind as much as may 
be away from matters sexual, until the age when 
the youth is ripe for marriage is reached. 



25 



CHAPTER IV 

SEX IN FEMALE CHILDHOOD 

(FROM 12 TO 14) 

WHAT has been said in general about practical 
observance of the laws of sex hygiene in the 
preceding chapter for boys, applies to girls as well. 
If anything the sex precautions taken in infancy 
should be even more closely followed, as girls are 
by nature less robust than boys. If children could 
be raised in entire accordance with natural laws, 
the sexual instinct of girls as well as boys would 
probably remain dormant during the period stretch- 
ing from infancy to puberty. As in the case of the 
boy, so in that of the girl, any manifestation of 
sexual precocity should be investigated, to see 
whether it be due to natural or artificial causes. In 
either case the proper remedies should be applied. 

SEX PRECOCITY IN GIRLS 

There are cases of extraordinary sex precocity 
in girls. One case reported in the United States 
was that of a female child who at birth possessed 
all the characteristics usually developed at puberty. 
In this case the natural periodical changes began at 
birth ! Fortunately, this is a case more or less unique, 
In little girls and boys undue sexual handling or 

26 



SEX IN FEMALE CHILDHOOD 

titillating of their genital organs tends to quiet 
them, so nurses (let us hope in ignorance of the 
consequences!) often resort to it. Sending children 
to bed very early, to "get rid of them," or confining 
them in a room by themselves, tends to encourage 
the development of vicious habits. A single bed, 
both in the school and in the home, is indispensable 
to purity of morals and personal cleanliness. It 
tends to restrain too early development of the 
sexual instinct both in small girls and small boys. 

SEXUAL SELF- ABUSE IN GIRLS 

Small girls, like small boys, display an intelligent 
curiosity as regards the phenomena of sex at an 
early age. And what has already been said regard- 
ing its improper gratification in the preceding 
chapter, so far as boys are concerned, applies with 
equal force to them. In their case, however, the 
mother is a girl's natural confidant and friend. 
Self-abuse in one or another form is as common 
in the case of the girl as in that of the boy. As a 
rule, girls who live an outdoor life, and work with 
their muscles more than their mind, do not develop 
undue precocious sexual curiosities or desires. At 
least they do not do so to the same extent as those 
more nervously and susceptibly constituted. The 
less delicate and sensitive children of the country 
tend less to these habits than their more sensitively 
organized city brothers and sisters. Girls who have 
formed vicious habits are apt to indulge in the prac- 
tice of self -abuse at night when going to bed. If 
there is cause for suspicion, the bedclothes should 

27 



SEX 

be quickly and suddenly thrown off under some 
pretense. Self-abuse usually has a marked effect on 
the genital organs of girls. The inner organs be- 
come unnaturally enlarged and distended, and 
leucorrhea, catarrh of the vagina, attended by a 
discharge of greenish-white mucus, often develops. 

RESULTS OF SELF-ABUSE IN GIRLS 

Local diseases, due to this cause, result in girls 
as well as boys. Temporary congestions become 
permanent, and develop into permanent irritations 
and disorders. Leucorrhea has already been men- 
tioned. Contact with the acrid, irritating internal 
secretions also causes soreness of the fingers at 
the root of the nails, and warts. Congestion and 
other diseases are other ultimate results of the habit ; 
and these congestions to which it gives rise unduly 
hasten the advent of puberty. Any decided enlarge- 
ment of the labia and clitoris in a young girl may be 
taken as a positive evidence of the existence of the 
habit of self-abuse. Sterility, and atrophy of the 
breasts — their deficient development — when the vice 
is begun before puberty, is another result. 

PRURITIS AND FEMININE NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS 

Pruritis (itching genitals), though not necessarily 
caused by self-abuse, may be one of its consequen- 
ces. Continued congestion causes the genital parts 
to itch terribly. This itching increases until the 
desire to manipulate the genitals becomes irresist- 
ible. It will then be indulged in even in the pres- 
ence of strangers, though the girl in question at 

28 



SEX IN FEMALE CHILDHOOD 

other times may be exceptionally modest. Girls 
addicted to the vice also suffer from nocturnal 
emissions. The general effect of self-abuse is much 
the same in the case of a girl as in that of a boy, 
for leucorrhea is injurious in somewhat the same 
fashion as seminal loss. In the case of girls the 
greatest injury, however, is due to the nervous ex- 
haustion which succeeds the unnatural excitement. 

WHAT MOTHERS SHOULD DO FOR THEIR GIRLS 

A healthy girl should be happy and comfortable 
in all respects. She will not be so, especially with 
regard to her sex problems, unless she can appeal 
to her mother as a friend and confidant. While 
keeping your girl's mind pure and healthy by pre- 
cept and example, do not forget that the best way 
to protect her against evil influences and communi- 
cations is to tell her the exact truth about sex facts, 
as they apply to her, just as the father should his 
boy. Keep your girl fully occupied and do not leave 
her sex education to the evil winds of chance. 

Let sex knowledge take its place as a proper, 
necessary part of her general education. If your 
daughter feels she can at all times talk freely to 
you all will be well. Gratify her natural sex curi- 
osity in a natural way. See that immediate medical 
attention is given inflammations, excoriations, itch- 
ings and swellings of her genital organs. Such con- 
ditions will lead her to rub and scratch these parts 
— never to be touched — for relief. If, as a result of 
the sensations experienced, masturbation results, 
yours is the sin. 

*9 



CHAPTER V 

SEX IN THE ADOLESCENT MALE 
(from puberty to maturity) 

ADOLESCENCE is the period when the boy is 
^ lost in the man. It is the time of life embraced 
between the ages of fourteen or sixteen and the age 
of twenty-five. Every boy, if properly trained, 
should reach this period in a state of good general 
health and spirits. Hitherto he has been led and 
guided. Now he must develop mental strength and 
will power himself to choose the good and refuse 
the evil in the sexual problems confronting him. 

puberty 

According to climate puberty, the age when the 
human male becomes sexually perfect, varies from 
ten to fifteen years. In the LTnited States puberty in 
the male usually occurs at the age of fourteen and a 
half years. In tropical climates it occurs at nine or 
ten, and in cold countries, such as Norway and 
Siberia, it may not take place until eighteen or 
nineteen. Vigorous physical exercise tends to delay 
puberty, anything exciting the emotions tends to 
hasten it. Stimulating foods, pepper, vinegar, mus- 
tard, spices, tea and coffee, excess meat nutriment 
hasten puberty. A cool, unstimulating vegetable 
and farinaceous diet may delay the development of 
the sexual system several months or a year. 

30 



SEX IN THE ADOLESCENT MALE 



THE SIGNS AND CHANGES OF PUBERTY 

In the boy the signs of puberty are the growth 
of hair on the skin covering the pubes and in the 
armpits. Chest and arms broaden, the frame grows 
more angular, the masculine proportions more pro 
nounced. The vocal cords grow longer and lower 
the pitch of the voice, Hair grows on chin, upper 
lip, cheeks, and often on the body surface, 

THE SEXUAL MORAL LAW 

The sexual moral law 7 is the same for both sexes, 
and equally binding. It may be summed up as 
follows : ''Your sexual urges, instincts and desires 
should never consciously injure an individual human 
being or mankind in general. They should be exer- 
cised to further the value and happiness of both." 

THE MALE ADOLESCENT AND CONTINENCE 

The perfect carrying out of this general moral 
law implies continence on the part of the male 
adolescent until marriage. Continence is positive 
restfaint under all circumstances. Strict continence 
is neither injurious to health, nor does it produce 
impotence. While self-denial is difficult, since the 
promptings of nature often seem imperious, it is not 
impossible. It is certain that no youth will suffer, 
physically, by remaining sexually pure. The de- 
mands which occur during adolescence are mainly 
abnormal, due to the excitements of an overstimu- 
lating diet, pornographic literature and art, and the 
temptations of impure association. 

3i 



SEX 

WHY YOUNG MEN GO WRONG 

Foul thoughts, once they enter the mind, corrode 
it. The sensual glance, the bawdy laugh, the ribald 
jest, the smutty story, the obscene song may be met 
with on street corner, in the car, train, hotel lobby, 
lecture hall and workshop. Mental unchastity ends 
in physical unchastity. The habit common to most 
adolescent boys and young men of relating smutty 
stories, repeating foul jokes and making indecent 
allusions destroys respect for virtue, In addition 
there are such direct physical causes of undue ado- 
lescent sexual excitement as constipation and alco- 
holism, and such mental ones as nervous irritability. 

To the constant discussion and speculation re- 
garding sex and its mysteries by the adolescent 
young male, must be added the artificial idea that 
idle prattling on the subject is a sign of "manhood." 
Thus many young men whose natural trend is in the 
direction of decency and right sexual living, "step 
out" or "go to see the girls," as the phrase is, be- 
cause they think that otherwise "they are not real 
men." More subtle in its evil effect, yet somewhat 
less dangerous physically, perhaps* than the profes- 
sional prostitute is the lure of the "hidden" prosti- 
tute, who carefully conceals her derelictions, and 
publicly wraps herself in a mantle of virtue. 

PROSTITUTION 

The training of the average male mind in impure 
language and thought during boyhood and adoles- 
cence, the cultivation of his animal at the expense 

Sex— 1 32 



SEX IN THE ADOLESCENT MALE 

of the moral nature, often leads the adolescent to 
seek satisfaction by frequenting the prostitute. 

Prostitution, known as the "social evil," is pro- 
miscuous unchastity for gain. It has existed in all 
civilized countries from earliest times. Prostitution 
abuses the instinct for reproduction, the basic 
element of sex, to offer certain women a livelihood 
which they prefer to other means. Love of excite- 
ment, inherited criminal propensities, indolence and 
abnormal sex appetite are first causes of prostitu- 
tion. Difficulity in finding work, laborious and 
ill-paid work, harsh treatment of girls at home, 
indecent living among the poor, contact with 
demoralizing companions, loose literature and 
amusements are secondary causes. They all contrib- 
ute to debauch male and female youth and lead it to 
form dangerous habits of vicious sensual indulgence. 

Prostitution seems inseparable from human socie- 
ty in large communities. The fact is acknowledged 
in the name given it, "the necessary evil." Regula- 
tion and medical control only arrest in a degree the 
spread of venereal diseases to which prostitution 
gives rise. The elementary laws on which prostitu- 
tion rests seems to be stronger than the artificial 
codes imposed by moral teaching. It is an evil 
which must be combatted individually. Men are 
principally responsible, in one way or another, for 
the existence of the social evil. In the case of the 
young man, abstention is the only cure for the 
probable results of indulging his animal passions by 
recourse to the prostitute. 

Prostitution, both public and private is the most 

Sex— 2 33 



SEX 

dangerous menace to society at large. It is the curse 
of individual young manhood because of the ve- 
nereal diseases it spreads. One visit to a house of 
prostitution may ruin a young man's health and life, 
and millions of human beings die annually from the 
effects of poison contracted in these houses. "Wild 
oats" sown in company with the prostitute usually 
bear fruit in the shape of the most loathsome and 
destructive sex disorders. 

The development of self-control, the avoidance of 
impure thoughts and associations, the cultivation 
of the higher moral nature instead of the lower 
animal one, and, finally, marriage, should prevent 
the young man from falling into prostitution. All 
the state and medical regulation in the world will 
not protect him from the venereal diseases he is so 
apt to acquire by such indulgence. 

FREE LOVE 

Free love is the doctrine of unrestrained choice, 
without binding ties, in sexual relations. For alto- 
gether different reasons, however, it is quite as 
objectionable as prostitution for the young man. It 
may offer better hygienic guarantees. But it is a 
sexual partnership which is opposed to the funda- 
mental institution of marriage, on which society in 
general is based throughout the world. And, aside 
from the fact that it is a promiscuous relationship 
not sanctioned by law or society, it is seldom practi- 
cally successful. It cannot admit of true love with- 
out bitter jealousies. 



34 



CHAPTER VI 

SEX IN THE ADOLESCENT FEMALE 

(from puberty to maturity) 

ADOLESCENCE in the girl is the period when 
-*lLshe develops into a woman. It is that stage 
in female life embraced between the ages of twelve 
or fourteen and twenty-one years. Elasticity of 
body, a clear complexion, and a happy control of 
her feelings should mark the young girl at this time, 
if she has been so fortunate as to escape the dan- 
gers and baneful influences of childhood and in- 
fancy. Her numerous bodily functions should be 
well performed. Thus constituted she should be in 
a condition to take up her coming struggle with the 
world, and the sex problem it will present. 

puberty 

It has been noticed that in the case of girls, 
puberty usually occurs earlier in brunettes than in 
blondes. In general, it makes its appearance earlier 
in those of a nervous or bilio-nervotts temperament 
than in those whose temperament is phlegmatic or 
lymphatic. In the United States fourteen and a 
half years is the usual age of puberty in girls. In 
tropical lands, however, it is not uncommon for a 
girl to be a mother at twelve. Country girls (and 
boys) usually mature several months or a year later 
than those living in cities. Too early a puberty in 

35 



SEX 

girls may well arouse concern. It usually indicates 
some inherent constitutional weakness. Premature 
puberty is often associated with premature decay. 

THE SIGNS AND CHANGES OF PUBERTY 

In the girl the sign of puberty is the growth of 
hair about the pubes, private organs and armpits. 
Her whole frame remains more slender than in the 
male. Muscles and joints are less prominent, limbs 
more rounded and tapering. Internal and external 
organs undergo rapid enlargement, locally. The 
mammce (the breasts) enlarge, the ovaries dilate, 
and a periodical uteral discharge (menstruation) is 
established. 

MENSTRUATION 

No young girl should feel alarmed if, owing 
to the negligence of her parents or guardians to pre- 
pare her, she is surprised by this first flow from 
the genital organs. Puberty is the proper time 
for the appearance of menstruation. This is the 
periodical development and discharge of an ovule 
(one or more) by the female, accompanied by the 
discharge of a fluid, known as menses or catamenia. 
Menstruation, in general good health, should occur 
about every twenty-eight days, or once in four 
weeks. This rule, however, is subject to great 
variation. Menstruation continues from puberty to 
about the forty-fifth year, which usually marks the 
menopause, or "change of life." When it disappears 
a woman is no longer capable of bearing children. 
Her period of fertility has passed. In rare cases 
menstruation has stopped at 35, or lasted till 60. 



36 



SEX IN THE ADOLESCENT FEMALE 



HINTS FOR OBSERVANCE DURING MENSTRUATION 

When the period arrives a girl or woman has a 
feeling of discomfort and lassitude, there is a sense 
of weight, and a disclination for society. Menstrua- 
tion should not, however, be regarded as a nuisance ; 
a girl's friends respect her most when she is "un- 
well." She should keep more than usually quiet 
while the flow continues, which it will do for a few 
days. Also, she should avoid all unnecessary fa- 
tigue, exposure to wet or to extremes of tempera- 
ture. Some girls are guilty of the crime of trying 
to arrest the menstruation flow, and resorting to 
methods of stopping it. Why ? In order to attend 
a dance or pleasure excursion ! Lives have been lost 
by thus suppressing the monthly flax. Mothers 
should instruct their daughters when the menses are 
apt to begin, and what their function is. During 
menstruation great care must be taken in using 
water internally. A chill is sufficient to arrest the 
flow. If menstruation does not establish itself in a 
healthy or normal manner at the proper time, 
consult a physician in order to remove this ab- 
normal condition. Any disturbance of the deli- 
cate menstrual functions during the period, by con- 
strained positions, muscular effort, brain work 
and mental or physical excitement, is apt to have 
serious consequences. 

CONTINENCE AND THE YOUNG ADOLESCENT GIRL 

Continence is, as a rule more easily observed by 
the adolescent girl than by the adolescent youth. 

37 



SEX 

Ordinarily the normal young girl has no undue 
sexual propensities, amorous thoughts or feelings. 
Though she is exposed to the danger of meeting 
other girls who may be lewd in thought and speech, 
in the houses of friends or at school, she is not apt 
to be carried away by their example. Yet even a 
good, pure-minded young girl may be debauched. 
Especially during adolescence, the easy observance 
of natural continence depends greatly on the proper 
functioning of the feminine genital organs. These 
may be easily disturbed. The syringe used for in- 
jections, for so-called purposes of cleanliness, is in 
reality a danger. The inner organs are self -cleans- 
ing. Water or other fluids cast into them disorder 
the mucous follicles, and dry up their secretions, 
preventing the flowing out of some of Nature's 
necessities. A daily washing of the inner organs 
for a long period with water also produces chronic 
leucorrhea. 

WHY YOUNG GIRLS FALL 

Lack of proper early training, abnormal sex in- 
stincts, weak good nature, poverty, all may be re- 
sponsible for a young girl's moral downfall. As a 
general thing, right home training and home environ- 
ment, and sane sex education will prevent the nor- 
mally good girl from going wrong. It should be 
remembered, though, that a naturally more gentle 
and yielding disposition may easily lead her into 
temptation. Girls who are sentimentally inclined 
should beware of giving way to advances on the part 
of young men which have only one object in view : 
the gratification of their animal passion. 

38 



SEX IN THE ADOLESCENT FEMALE 

The holding of hands and similar innocent begin- 
nings often pave the way for more familiar caresses. 
Passionate kisses — -the promiscuous kiss, by the 
way, may be the carrier of that dread infection, 
syphilis — violently awaken a young girl's sex in- 
stincts. The fact is that many innocent girls idealize 
their seducers. They believe their lying promises, 
actually come to love them, and think that in grati- 
fying their inflamed desires, they are giving a proof 
of the depth and purity of their own affection. 

Here, as in the case of the young man, self-con- 
trol should be the first thing cultivated. And self- 
control should be made doubly sure by never 
permitting one of the opposite sex to show undue 
familiarity. Many a seemingly innocent flirtation, 
begun with a kiss, has ended in shame and disgrace, 
in loss of social standing and position, venereal 
disease, or even death. The pure-minded and in- 
nocent girl often becomes a victim of her ignorance 
of the consequences entailed by giving in to the de- 
sires of some male companion. The girl who has a 
knowledge of sex facts is less apt to be taken ad- 
vantage of in this manner. 

MODERN CONDITIONS WHICH ENCOURAGE 
IMMORALITY 

Excessive Freedom. — The excessive freedom 
granted the young girl, especially since the World 
War, must be held responsible for a great increase 
in familiarity between the adolescent youth of both 
sexes. Many young girls of the "flapper" type, 
in particular, are victims of these conditions 

39 



SEX 

of unrestrained sex association. Sex precocity- 
is furthered in coeducational colleges, in the high 
school and the home. Adolescents of both sexes too 
often are practically unhampered in their comings 
and goings, their words and actions. The surrep- 
titious pocket flask;, filled with "hooch/' is often a 
feature of social parties, dances and affairs fre- 
quented by young people. Girls and boys drink to- 
gether, and as alcohol weakens moral resistance in 
the one case, and stimulates desire in the other, de- 
plorable consequences naturally result. In the 
United States the number of girls "sent home" from 
colleges, and of high-school girls being privately 
treated by physicians to save them from disgrace, is 
incredibly large. 

Parents who do not control the social activities 
of their daughters, who permit them to spend their 
evenings away from home with only a general idea 
of what they are doing or whom they are meeting, 
need not be surprised if their morals are under- 
mined. 

The Auto. — The advent of the automobile is 
responsible for an easy and convenient manner of 
satisfying precociously aroused sex instincts in 
young girls and boys. Often, unconscientious pleas- 
ure-seekers roam the roads in their auto. They ac- 
cost girls who are walking and offer them a "lift." 
When the latter refuse to gratify their desires 
they are often beaten and flung from the car. The 
daily press has given such publicity to this civilized 
form of "head hunting," that it is difficult to sym- 
pathize with girls who are thus treated, They can- 

40 



SEX IN THE ADOLESCENT FEMALE 

not help but know that in nine cases out of ten, a 
stranger who invites them to a ride, who "picks" 
them up, does so with the definite purpose already 
mentioned in view. 

Poverty. — Poverty, too, plays a large part in 
driving young girls into a life of vice. In all our 
large cities there are hundreds of young women 
who earn hardly enough to buy food and fuel and 
pay for the rent of a room in a cheap lodging house. 
Feminine youth longs for dress, for company, for 
entertainment. It is easy enough to find a "gentle- 
man f riend" who will provide all three, in exchange 
for "companionship." So the bargain is struck. 
These conditions exist in a hundred and one occu- 
pations. A young woman may go to a large city as 
pure as snow, but finding no lucrative employment, 
lonely and despondent, she is led to take her first 
step on the downward path. Soon daily contact with 
vice removes abhorrence to it. Familiarity makes it 
habitual, and another life is ruined. The heartless 
moral code of the cynical young pleasure-seeking 
male is summed up in the cant phrase anent 
women : "Find, .... and forget !" It is these girls, 
who are victimized by their lack of self-restraint or 
moral principle, their ignorance or weakness, who 
make possible the application of such a maxim. 

VIRGINITY 

Both mental and physical purity are rightfully re- 
quired of the young girl about to marry. How shall 
she acquire and maintain this desirable state of 
purity? The process is a simple one. She mast let a 

4i 



SEX 

knowledge of the true hygienic and moral laws of 
her sex guide her in her relations with men. She 
must cultivate dean thought on a basis of physical 
cleanliness. She need not be ignorant to be pure. 
Men she should study carefully. She should not 
allow them to sit with their arm about her waist, to 
hold her hand, to kiss her. No approach nor touch 
beyond what the best social observance sanctions 
should be permitted. Even the tendernesses and 
familiarities of courtship should be restrained. An 
engagement does not necessarily culminate in a 
marriage, and once the foot has slipped on virtue's 
path the error cannot be recalled. These considera- 
tions, together with those adduced in the preceding 
section, "Why Young Girls Fall/' are well worth 
taking to heart by every young woman who wishes 
to approach matrimony in the right and proper way. 



42 



CHAPTER VII 

SEX IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION 

THE HUSBAND 

MARRIAGE is the process by which a man and 
woman enter into a complete physical, legal 
and moral union. The natural object of marriage 
is the complete community of life for the establish- 
ment of a family. 

THE MARRIAGEABLE AGE AND ADAPTATION 

At twenty-four the male body attains its complete 
development ; and twenty-five is a proper age for the 
young man to marry. Romantic love, personal 
affection on a basis of congeniality, mutual adapta- 
tion, a similar social sphere of life, should determine 
his choice. Nature and custom indicate that the 
husband should be somewhat older than the wife. 

MEN WHO SHOULD NOT MARRY 

Men suffering with diseases which may be com- 
municated by contagion or heredity should not 
marry. These diseases include : tuberculosis, syphi- 
lis, cancer, leprosy, epilepsy and some nervous dis- 
orders, some skin diseases and insanity. A worn-out 
rake has no business to marry, since marriage is not 
a hospital for the treatment of disease, or a reforma- 
tory institution for moral lepers. Those having a 

43 



SEX 

marked tendency to disease must not marry those 
of similar tendency. The marriage of cousins is not 
to be advocated. The blood relation tends to bring 
together persons with similar morbid tendencies. 
Where both are healthy, however, there seems to be 
no special liability to mental incompetency, though 
such marriages are accused of producing defective 
or idiot children. Men suffering from congenital 
defects should not marry. Natural blindness, deaf- 
ness, muteness, and congenital deformities of limb 
are more or less likely to be passed on to their chil- 
dren. There are cases of natural blindness, though, 
to which this rule does not apply. Criminals, alco- 
holics, and persons disproportionate in size should 
not marry. In the last-mentioned, lack of mutual 
physical adaptability may produce much unhappi- 
ness, especially on the part of the wife. Serious 
local disease, sterility, and great risk in childbirth 
may result. Disparity of years, disparity of race, a 
poverty which will not permit the proper raising of 
children, undesirable moral character are all good 
reasons for not marrying. 

MEDICAL EXAMINATION BEFORE MARRIAGE 

Medical examination as a preliminary to marriage 
is practically more valuable than a marriage license. 
Since many entirely innocent young girls to-day 
suffer from disease, incurred either through heredi- 
tary or accidental infection, a would-be husband 
may be said to be quite as much entitled to protec- 
tion as his bride-to-be. Prohibitive physical defects 
are also discovered in this connection. 

44 



CHAPTER VIII 

SEX IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION 

THE WIFE 

GIRLS marry, in the final analysis, because love 
for the male is an innate natural principle of 
the female nature. At its best this love is pure and 
chaste. The good woman realizes that its first pur- 
pose is not mere carnal pleasure. It is a special 
avowal of the wife's relations to her husband, and 
its natural as well as moral end is the establishment 
of the family on the basis of a healthy progeny. 

BEFORE MARRIAGE 

The wife-to-be, like her prospective husband, will 
be well advised to ask for a medical health certifi- 
cate. No man, no matter how good his reputation 
may be, should marry (on his own account as well 
as that of the girl) without thorough examination 
by a physician. The consequences of venereal infec- 
tion administered to unborn children by their par- 
ents are too horrible to allow of any risk being 
taken. Another bit of advice, which cannot be too 
highly commended, is that the prospective husband 
and wife, before they marry, have a plain talk with 
each other regarding individual sexual peculiarities 
and needs. A heart-to-heart talk of this kind would 

45 



SEX 

be apt to prevent great disappointments and incom- 
patibilities which otherwise may become permanent. 

THE WIFE AND HER- POSITION 

The natural instinct of a man is to seek his mate. 
On her he depends for an orderly and lawful indul- 
gence of his sex demands. The greatest longevity 
and best health are to be found among happily mar- 
ried fathers and mothers. No young woman should 
marry without a full knowledge of her sex duties 
to her husband. And she should never consum- 
mate the marriage vow grudgingly. 

CHILDBIRTH HYGIENE 

Childbirth is the natural consequence of marriage. 
Its processes have already been explained in Chap- 
ter II of this book. There are, however, some 
hygienic facts in connection with it which should 
be noted. Once pregnancy is established, as soon as 
the fact is suspected, the mother-to-be should look 
on the little embryo as already a member of the 
family. Every act of each parent should now be 
performed (at least to some degree) with reference 
to the forthcoming infant. The mother's thoughts 
should be directed to it as much as possible. Men- 
tally she should read literature of a lofty and enno- 
bling character. The theory is that this serves a 
good purpose in producing a more perfect, healthy 
and intelligent child. Physically, she should take 
plenty of active exercise during gestation. Active 
exercise does not, of course, mean violent exercise. 
And she should use a "Health Lift." During this 

4 6 



SEX IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION 

time she should subsist as far as possible on a fari- 
naceous diet, fruits and vegetables. The foods 
should be plainly cooked, without spices. If all else 
is as it should be, the birth of the child at the end 
of the customary nine months will be attended by 
comparatively little pain and danger. 

HOW OFTEN SHOULD CHILDBIRTH TAKE PLACE? 

It is most important that the childbearing wife and 
mother have a long period of rest between births. 
At least one year should separate a birth and the 
conception following it. This means that about two 
years should elapse between two births. If this rule 
be followed, the wife will retain her health, and her 
children will also be healthy. It is far better to give 
birth to seven children, who will live and be healthy, 
than to bear fourteen, of whom seven are likely to 
die, while the numerous successive births wear out 
and age the unfortunate mother. 

MATRIMONIAL ADJUSTMENT 

The above paragraph deals with one detail of 
what might be called "matrimonial adjustment." 
This adjustment or compromise is a feature of all 
successful marriages. The individual cravings of 
husband and wife must be reconciled by mutual 
good will and forbearance if they are to be happy. 
Attention should be paid in particular to not allow- 
ing habit, "the worst foe of married happiness," to 
become too well established in the home, and to cul- 
tivate that love and affection which survives the 
decline of the sexual faculties. 

47 



SEX 



THE IDEAL MARRIAGE 



The ideal marriage is the one in which affection 
combines to bring happiness to both partners in a 
sane union of sex and soul. As one commentator 
has rather unhappily expressed it : "When married 
the battle for one united and harmonious life really 
begins!" It is, indeed, but too often a battle! For- 
bearance, consideration and respect must be the 
foundation on which the ideal married state is built. 
The husband should realize that his wife's love for 
him induces her to allow privileges of a personal 
nature which her innate chastity and timidity might 
otherwise refuse. In return, he should accept these 
privileges with consideration. He should, in partic- 
ular, on his wedding night, take care not to shock 
his young bride's sensibilities. He may easily give 
her a shock from which she will not recover for 
years, and lead her to form an antipathy against 
the very act which is "the bond and seal of a truly 
happy married life." 

BIRTH CONTROL 

Material changes have taken place in the birth- 
rate of a number of countries during the past fifteen 
or twenty years which cannot be attributed to purely 
economic causes. They do not seem to depend on 
such things as trade, employment and prices; but 
on the spread of an idea or influence whose tendency 
must be deplored, that of "birth control," a phrase 
much heard in these days. 

The fact that a decline in human fertility and a 

4 8 



SEX IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION 

falling birth rate are most noticeable in the relatively 
prosperous countries is a proof that it does not pro- 
ceed from economic causes; but is due rather to 
the spread of the doctrine that it is permissible to 
restrict or control birth. In such countries as the 
United States, England and Australasia, where the 
standards of human comfort and living are notori- 
ously high, the decline in the birth rate has been 
most noticeable. On the other hand, we find per- 
haps the greatest decline in the birth rate in France 
a country where the general well-being probably 
reaches a lower depth in the community than in any 
other part of Europe. A comparison of the birth 
rates of France and of Ireland, for example, offer 
a valuable illustration of the point under considera- 
tion. In France, more than half the women who 
have reached the age of nubility are married; in 
Ireland, generally speaking, less than a third. In 
both countries the crude birth rate is far below that 
in other European lands. Yet the fertility of the 
Irish wife exceeded that of her French compeer by 
44 per cent in 1880, and by no less than 84 per cent 
in 1900. And since that time the prolificity of the 
Irish mother has so increased that she is now, ap- 
proximately speaking, inferior only to the Dutch or 
Finnish mother in this respect. 

In general, in any country where we find a 
diminished prolificity a falling off of childbirth ten- 
accompanied by a decrease in the number of mar- 
riages occurring at the reproductive ages, we may 
attribute this decrease to voluntary restriction of 
childbearing on the part of the married, or in other 

49 



SEX 

words, to the prevelance of "birth control." This 
incidentally, is not a theoretical statement, but one 
supported by the almost unanimous medical opinion 
in all countries. Everywhere and especially here in 
our own United States, we find evidence of the ex- 
tensive employ of "birth control" measures to pre- 
vent that normal development of family life which 
underlies the vigor and racial power of every na- 
tion. These preventive measures which arbitrarily 
control human birth had long been in use in France 
with results which, especially since the war, have 
been frequently and publicly deplored in the press, 
and have led the French Government to offer sub- 
stantial rewards to encourage the propagation of 
large families. From France the preventive prac- 
tises of "birth control" had spread, after 1870, 
over nearly all the countries of western Europe, to 
England and to the United States ; though they are 
not as much apparent in those countries where the 
Roman Church has a strong hold on the people. 

As a general thing, the practice of thus unnat- 
urally limiting families — "unnaturally" since the 
custom of "birth control" derives from no natural, 
physical law — prevails, in the first instance, among 
the well-to-do, who should rather be the first to set 
the example of protest against it by having the 
families they are so much better able to support 
and educate than those less favored with the world's 
goods. If the evil of voluntary control of human 
birth were restricted to a privileged class, say one 
of wealth, the harm done would, perhaps, not be so 
great. But, unfortunately, in the course of time 

50 



SEX IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION 

it filters down as a "gospel of comfort"— erroneous 
term!— to those whose resources are less. They 
accept and practice this invidious system of pre- 
vention and gradually the entire community is 
more or less affected, 

The whole system of "birth control" is opposed to 
natural, human and religious law. Nature, in none 
of her manifestations, introduces anything which 
may tend to prevent her great reason for being— 
the propagation of the species. Birth as the nat- 
ural sequence of mating is her solemn and invariable 
law. It is in birth and rebirth that nature renews 
herself and all the life of the animal and vegetable 
world, and her primal aim is to encourage it. Hu- 
man law recognizes this underlying law of nature 
by forbidding man to tamper in a preventive way 
with her hallowed and mysterious processes for 
perpetuating the human race. Religious law, based 
on the divine dispensation of the Scriptures, in- 
dorses the law of nature and that of the state. 

We may take it, then, that "birth control" repre- 
sents a deliberate and reprehensible attempt to 
nullify those innate laws of reproduction sanctioned 
by religion, tradition and man's own ingrained in- 
stinct To say that the human instinct for the per- 
petuation of his race and family has become 
atrophied during the flight of time, and that he is 
therefore justified in denying it, is merely begging 
the question. The instinct may be denied, just as 
other higher and nobler instincts are disregarded ; 
but its validity cannot be questioned, Whether 
those who practice "birth control" are influenced 

5* 



SEX 

by economic, selfishly personal or other reasons, 
they are offending in a threefold manner : against 
the inborn wish and desire which is a priceless pos- 
session of even the least of God's creatures, that 
of living anew in its offspring; against the law of 
the state, which after all, stands for the crystalliza- 
tion of the best feeling of the community; and 
against the divine injunction handed down to us 
in Holy Writ, to "increase and multiply." 

"Birth control" is the foe to the direct end and 
aim of marriage, which, in the last analysis, is child- 
birth. As an enemy to the procreation of children 
it is an enemy of the family and the family group. 
As an enemy of the family, it is an enemy of the 
state, the community, a foe to the whole social 
system. Mankind has been able to attain its com- 
paratively recent state of moral and physical ad- 
vancement without having recourse to the dangerous 
principle w T hich "birth control" represents. Surely 
that wise provision of our existing legal code which 
makes the printing or dessimation of information 
regarding the physical facts of "birth control" illegal 
and punishable as an offense, can only be approved 
by those who respect the Omnipotent will, and the 
time-hallowed traditions which date back to the 
very inception of the race. 



CHAPTER IX 

SEX DISEASES 

THE sex diseases are the same in both sexes, 
whether developed by direct or accidental 
infection. They are the greatest practical argument 
in favor of continence, morality and marriage in 
the sex relation. 

GONORRHEA 

Gonorrhea is a pus-discharging inflammation of 
the canal known as the urethra, which passing 
through the entire length of the organ, carries both 
the urine and the seminal fluid. It is caused by a 
venereal bacillus, the gonococcus. Under favorable 
conditions and with right treatment, gonorrhea may 
be cured, though violently painful, in fourteen days. 
Often the inflammation extends, becomes chronic 
and attacks other organs. This chronic gonorrhea 
often causes permanent contraction of the urethra, 
which leads to the painful retention of urine, 
catarrh of the bladder, and stone. Chronic gonor- 
rhea, too, often ends in death, especially if the 
kidneys are attacked. A cured case of gonorrhea 
does not mean immunity from further attacks. New 
infections are all the more easily acquired. Gonor- 
rhea has even more dangerous consequences in 
women than in men. The gonococcus bacilli infect 
all the inner female genital organs. They cause 

53 



SEX 

frequent inflammations and lead to growths in the 
belly. Women thus attacked usually are apt to be 
sterile; they suffer agonies, and often become 
chronic invalids. The child born of a gonorrheal 
mother, while passing through the infected genital 
organs, comes to life with infected eyelids. This is 
Blennorrhea, which may result in total blindness. 
Gonorrhea also causes inflammation of the joints, 
gonorrheal rheumatism, testicular inflammations 
which may lead to sterility. Some authorities claim 
that fully half the sterility in women is caused by 
gonorrheal infection of the Fallopian tubes. Gon- 
orrheal infection of the eyes at birth is now pre- 
vented by first washing them in a saturated solution 
of boric acid, then treating them with a drop of 
weak silver solution. 

SYPHILIS 

Syphilis is a still more terrible venereal disease. 
It usually appears first in small, hard sores, hard 
chancres, on the sexual parts or the mouth. Then 
the syphilitic poison spreads throughout the w r hole 
body by means of the blood. After a few weeks it 
breaks out on the face or body. Its final cure is 
always questionable. Syphilis may lie dormant for 
years, and then suddenly become active again. It 
breaks out in sores on all parts of the body, often 
eats up the bone, destroys internal organs, such as 
the liver, causes hardening of the lungs, diseases of 
the blood vessels and e>e diseases. Ulcers of the 
brain and nerve paralysis often result from it. One 
of its most terrible consequences is consumption of 

54 



SEX DISEASES 

the spinal marrow and paralysis of the brain, or 
paresis. The first slowly hardens and destroys the 
spinal marrow, the second the brain. These dis- 
eases are only developed by previous syphilitics. As 
a rule they occur from 5 to 20 years after infection, 
usually 10 or 15 years after it. And they usually 
happen to persons who believed themselves com- 
pletely cured. Consumption of the spinal marrow 
leads to death in the course of a few years of con- 
tinual torture. Paralysis of the brain turns the 
sufferer into a human ruin, gradually extinguish- 
ing all mental and nervous functions, sentience, 
movement, speech and intellect. 

One danger of syphilis is the fact that its true 
nature may be overlooked during the first period, 
because of the lack of pronounced symptoms. Its 
early sores may easily be mistaken for some skin 
affection. Mercury and other means are successful 
in doing away with at least the more noticeable 
signs of syphilis during the first and secondary 
stages. The modern medical treatment using mer- 
cury and Salvarsan (606) in alternation, has been 
very successful. It is claimed that by following it, 
syphilis may be totally cured if taken in hand during 
the first stage. The sores developed during the first 
two or three years of the disease are very infectious. 
In the case of a chronic syphilis of three or four 
years' standing, the sores as a rule are no longer 
infectious. It is possible, however, for a syphilitic 
of this description to bring forth syphilitic children, 
without infecting his wife. Such children either die 
at birth, or later, of this congenital syphilis. They 

55 



SEX 

may also die of spinal consumption or paresis be- 
tween the ages of 10 and 20. The mortality of 
all syphilitic children is very great. In most cases, 
however, healthy children are born of the wedlock 
of relatively cured syphilitics, though they are 
often sterile. Young men who have had recourse 
to prostitutes, often inoculate their wives with 
gonorrhea or syphilis, and thus the plague is spread. 

THE SOFT CHANCRE 

The soft chancre is the third form of venereal dis- 
ease (the hard chancre being the first stage of 
syphilis). It is the least dangerous of the venereal 
diseases, but unfortunately, relatively the one which 
occurs most seldom. When not complicated with 
syphilis, it appears locally. It is a larger or smaller 
sore feeding and growing on the genital organs. 

VENEREAL DISEASE AN ADVOCATE OF CONTINENCE 

The most tragic consequence of all venereal dis- 
ease is the part it plays in the infection of innocent 
children, and innocent wives and mothers. Often 
a pure and chaste woman is thus deprived in the 
most cruel and brutal manner of the fruit of all 
her hopes and dreams of happiness. Similarly, a 
young man may find himself hopelessly condemned 
to a short life of pain and misery. He may also 
suffer from the knowledge that he has ruined the 
lives of those dearest to him. Veneral disease, 
syphilis in particular, emphasizes the practical value 
of continence — quite aside from its moral one — -in 
a manner which cannot be ignored! 

56 



CHAPTER X 

LOVE AND SEX 

WHEN we take under consideration the higher, 
truer love of one sex for the other, that is, 
an affection which is not simply a friendship, but 
has a sex basis, we realize that it may be a very 
noble emotion. There is no manner of doubt but 
that the normal human being feels a great need for 
love. Sex in love and its manifestation in the life 
of the soul is one of the first conditions of human 
happiness, and a main aim of human existence. 

All know the tale of Cupid's arrow. A man falls 
in love with a face, a pair of eyes, the sound of a 
voice, and his affection is developed from this tri- 
fling beginning until it takes complete possession of 
him. This love is usually made up of two compo- 
nents: a sex instinct, and feelings of sympathy and 
interest which hark back to primal times. And this 
love, in its true sense, should stand for an affection 
purified from egoism. 

When, among the lower animal forms we find 
individuals without a determined sex, egoism de- 
velops free from all restraint. Each individual 
creature devours as much as it can and feeding, 
together with propagation by division, "budding" 
or conjunction, makes up the total of its vital acti- 
vities. It need do no more to accomplish the 

57 



SEX 

purpose of its existence. Even when propagation 
commences to take place by means of individual 
male and female parents, the same principle of ego- 
ism largely obtains. The spiders are typical in- 
stances of this : in their case the carrying out of the 
natural functions of the male spider is attended 
with much danger for him, owing to the fact that 
if he does not exercise the greatest care, he is apt 
to be devoured immediately afterward by his female 
partner, in order that no useful food matter may be 
lost. Yet even in the case of the spiders, the female 
spider already gives proof of a certain capacity for 
sacrifice .where her young are concerned, at any 
rate for a short time after they have crept from 
the egg. 

In animals somewhat higher in the creative scale, 
more or less powerful feelings of affection may de- 
velop out of their sex association. There is affec- 
tion on the part of the male for his mate, and on the 
part of the female for her young. Often these 
feelings develop into a strong, lasting affection be- 
tween the sexes, and years of what might be called 
faithful matrimonial union have been observed in 
the case of birds. This in itself is sufficient to 
establish the intimate relationship between love in 
a sex sense and love in a general sense. And even in 
the animal creation we find the same analogy exist- 
ing between these feelings of sympathy and their 
opposites which occur in the case of human beings. 
Every feeling of attachment or sympathy existing 
between two individuals has a counterpart in an 
opposite feeling of discontent when the object of 

58 



LOVE AND SEX 

the love or attachment in question dies, falls sick, 
or runs away. This feeling of discontent may as- 
sume the form of a sorrow ending in lasting melan- 
choly. In the case of apes and of certain parrots, 
it has been noticed that the death of a mate has fre- 
quently led the survivor to refuse nourishment, and 
die in turn from increasing grief and depression. 
If, on the other hand, an animal discovers the cause 
of the grief or loss which threatens it; if some 
enemy creature tries to rob it of its mate or little 
ones, the mixed reactive feeling of rage or anger 
is born in it, anger against the originator of its 
discontent. Jealousy is only a definite special form 
of this anger reaction. 

A further development of the feeling of sympathy 
is that of duty. Every feeling of love or sympathy 
urges those who feel it to do certain things which 
will benefit the object of that love. A mother will 
feed her young, bed them down comfortably, caress 
them ; a father will bring nourishment to the mother 
and her brood, and protect them against foes. All 
these actions, not performed to benefit the creature 
itself, but to help its beloved mate, represent exer- 
tion, trouble, the overcoming of danger, and lead to 
a struggle between egoism and the feeling of sym- 
pathy. Out of this struggle is born a third feeling, 
that of responsibility and conscience. Thus the ele~ 
ments of the human social feelings are already 
quite pronounced in the case of many animals, in- 
cluding those of love as well as sex. 

In the human animal, speaking in general, these 
feelings of sympathy (love) and duty are strongly 

59 



SEX 

developed in the family connection ; that is, they are 
developed with special strength in those who are 
most intimately united in sex life, in husband and 
wife and in children. Consequently the feelings of 
sympathy or love which extend to larger communal 
groups, such as more distant family connections, the 
tribe, the community, those speaking the same 
tongue, the nation, are relatively far weaker. 
Weakest of all, in all probability, is that general 
human feeling which sees a brother in every other 
human being and is conscious of the social duties 
owed him. 

As regards man and wife, the relation of the ac- 
tual sex instinct to love is often a very complicated 
one. In the case of man the sex feeling may, and 
frequently does exist independent of love in the 
higher sense ; in the case of woman it is quite certain 
that love occurs far less seldom unaccompanied by 
the sex inclination. It is also quite possible for love 
to develop before the development of the sex feel- 
ing, and this often, in married life, leads to the hap- 
piest relationships. 

The mutual adoration of two individuals, husband 
and wife, often degenerates into a species of egoistic 
enmity toward the remainder of the world. And 
this, in turn, in many cases reacts unfavorably upon 
the love the two feel for each other. Human soli- 
darity, especially in this day, is already too great 
not to revenge itself upon the egotistical character 
of so exclusive a love. The real ideal of sex in love 
might be expressed as follows : A man and a 
woman should be induced to unite in marriage 

60 



LOVE AND SEX 

through genuine sex attraction and harmony of 
character and disposition. In this union they should 
mutually encourage each other to labor socially for 
the common good of mankind, in such wise that 
they further their own mutual education and that of 
their children, the beings nearest and dearest to 
them, as the natural point of departure for helping 
general human betterment. 

If love in its relation to sex be conceived in this 
manner, it will purify it by doing away with its 
pettinesses and it is just into these pettinesses that 
the most honest and upright of matrimonial loves 
too often degenerate. The constructive work done 
in common by two human beings who, while they 
care lovingly for each other, at the same time en- 
courage each other to strive and endure in carrying 
out the principles of right living and high thinking, 
will last. Love and marriage looked at from this 
point of view, are relatively immune from the small 
jealousies and other evil little developments of a 
one-sided, purely physical affection. It will work 
for an ever more ideal realization of love in its 
higher and nobler dispensations. 

Real and true love is lasting. The suddenly 
awakened storm of sex affection for a hitherto 
totally unknown person can never be accepted as a 
true measure for love. This sudden surge of the 
sex feeling warps the judgment, makes it possible to 
overlook the grossest defects, colors all and every- 
thing with heavenly hues. It makes a man who is 
"in love," or two beings who are in love, mutually 
blind, and causes each to carefully conceal his or her 

61 



SEX 

real inward self from the other. This may be the 
case even when the feelings of both are absolutely 
honest, especially if the sex feeling is not paired 
with cool egoistic calculation. Not until the first 
storm of the sex feeling has subsided, when honey- 
moon weeks are over, is a more normal point of 
view regained. And then love, indifference, or 
hatred, as the case may be develops. It is for this 
reason that love at first sight is always dangerous, 
and that only a longer and more intimate ac- 
quaintance with the object of one's affection is 
calculated to give a lasting union a relatively good 
chance of turning out happily. One thing is worth 
bearing in mind. Woman invariably represents 
the conservative element in the family. Her emo- 
tional qualities, combined with wonderful en- 
durance, always control her intellect more power- 
fully than is the case with man; and the feelings 
and emotions form the conservative element in 
the human soul. 



62 



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6 4 



